Alea's Baptism!!!!

Back in March we were driving home from ballet and out of the blue she said "Mom, I want to get baptized in Africa."  Tears of joy streamed down my face!  We hadn't talked about it at all other than the week before her AWANA lesson was on Acts 8 when God sent Philip down the road to Ethiopia and he ran into the Eunich riding the chariot who was reading the scroll of Isaiah. Philip hopped in to explain the meaning to him and out of the nowhere a pool of water appeared in the desert and the Eunich wanted to get baptized! Alea had made a little diaroma of that story to turn into her AWANA leader.  Well Alea said God sent her a message that she was supposed to get baptized in Africa!  So we were just waiting on God to arrange the time and location for us.  We weren't sure if it would be at one of the church's we were visiting or what, but God knew our shy, quiet Alea would prefer a much quieter location with a much smaller crowd and no microphone to speak into (she gets very tongue-tied speaking in front of groups). Our wonderful new friends at Musana Camp provided the small "cloud of witnesses" and beautiful Lake Victoria (parasites and all...don't worry mom, we picked up the treatment from the pharmacy when we got back to the big city of Kampala) provided the perfect baptismal. 

Our small cloud of witnesses (a few more were out of the picture)

 

So for our families and dear friends back home who had to miss her baptism, here was the "order of service":
1.  Joey read Acts 2:37-41
"And Peter said to them 'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will recieve the gift of the Holy Spirit'....."
2. Alea shared her testimony
"I accepted Jesus into my heart 2 summers ago at my grandparents' camp.  I love God and want to be more like Him.  I want to be baptized so I can be transformed by the Holy Spirit."
3.  Anissa was supposed to pray, but couldn't stop crying, so Joey prayed.
4.  Joey and Alea waded out past the seaweed to a deep enough spot and shouting above the waves, Joey baptized her in the Name of the Father, the Spirit, and the Son.  They stood there hugging and crying for awhile before wading back.  Jonas ran out as they were coming back to meet them and hug Alea.
5. We all stood on the shore when they got back and sang "Our God is bigger, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other, Our God is healer, awesome in power, our God, our God...."  (that was the song of her choice, very special to us...we sang it every day  at Kids Club in the slums)
6.  Then the kids all swam for about an hour!